Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1988. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
Newsday - December 27, 1988
Laurie Garrett - Staff Correspondent
Lusaka is headquarters for the African National Congress and SWAPO, resistance organizations for South Africa and Namibia, respectively. And Zambia is the leader of the Frontline States, the black nations committed to the elimination of apartheid rule in South Africa.
Afrikaner leaders in South Africa have claimed that most of the ANC members in Zambia are infected with AIDS. During South Africa's recent elections, parliamentary candidates for the two leading Afrikaner parties claimed that the ANC has a policy of sending AIDS-infected cadres into South Africa on kamikaze sabotage missions.
Thabo Mbeki, a member of the top leadership of the ANC, said in an interview that the South African claims were foolish. "Yes, some of our people have developed AIDS," he said. "I don't know how many. But it is our specific policy that they should not be sent into South Africa, because it would be wrong. Absolutely wrong."
Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda laughed heartily when asked about the South African claims, adding, "Those people [the Afrikaners] are sick mentally. Basically, they are the patients, themselves. They can only think in terms of race, that's all. Color. The truth is that AIDS is everywhere on Earth today, in some places more pronounced than others. But to say that South Africa is free of AIDS, and the ANC are taking the disease to South Africa . . . " He began to laugh loudly, then said, "I don't think we can take them seriously at all."
Inside South Africa only 143 cases of AIDS have been officially reported, but in recent months the country's often-censored liberal press has charged that the government figures are off by a factor of 300 percent. According to these press accounts, it is not the ANC that is responsible for bringing AIDS into the country, but European airline stewards and mineworkers from neighboring African nations.
The World Health Organization also commonly cites mineworkers to describe the southward spread of AIDS. Under South African law, men who migrate either from distant provinces of South Africa or neighboring nations to work the mines cannot bring their wives or girlfriends. As a result, mining communities often have highly disproportionate numbers of single men, and prostitutes.
Afrikaner politicians, however, continue to denounce the ANC for allegedly spreading the disease. Western diplomatic sources said the rumors about AIDS suicide raids started more than a year ago when an ANC member in Johannesburg blew himself up while constructing a bomb. The government conducted an autopsy and claimed to have evidence the man was infected with the AIDS virus.
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